I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

Her reply came curt and quick. Nearly darting past Thalia's ears if she had not pushed her entire focus to the last few minutes of sanity.

After that, it would just be one near-death experience after another until it becomes too close to be evaded.

That had continued to play in her mind. A severe warning of the disparity of the situation. A flick of crimson that flared like a warning light in her head.

She gulped slowly.

"Hah….you're still you." She said,

Mila's head tilted to the side. Then, it erratically shifted like a forced vibration. Shifting too quickly to directions that wouldn't be considered normal.

Then her eyes filled with crimson pools of lava flared.

"Of course it's me, you fool." She replied, an amused chuckle escaping from her lips. "Now that you've seen me in my full abilities, you must want to shit your pants. Right?"

Thalia's shoulders flinched.

'That's an understatement.'

She took another step forward, cautiously watching over her foe. For the slightest of movements that may send trigger warnings down her spine.

"Don't move."

Mila's voice dropped to a Nearly suicidal low tone. A feral grumble like a feral beast.

It sent a shiver down Thalia's skin as goosebumps rushed over her while her body awkwardly flinched.

She froze on the spot.

Sophie stood behind in silence. Like she had always done.

Watching. Inspecting. Waiting.

At times like these, she would prefer to be alone. In that way, the need to hide herself wouldn't be so constant. And she would finally portray her strength and take down the enemies.

The fun ones, especially. Of course, she meant Demonic Humans.

They took the cake. No, they were the cake. Her cake.

It was becoming a cancer. Growing. Festering. Lingering a deadly growth under her tissues. A pain to her stride.

This wasn't her. Not close.

She wasn't used to keeping herself hidden for this long. Especially this long.

'...but all that will come to an end soon.'

The Arcanus Household had their plans. They stalled for now, maybe, but they were still there.

And unlike the System Uprisers, they actually possessed the power to achieve whatever they wanted.

But if they didn't. Then they would simply grow it.

Her thoughts drifted for a moment before she shook her head back to the present.

It wasn't near time for her to showcase her abilities. After all, she was different from most of her peers.

If Ciara Merlin was a one-of-a-kind born between centuries, then Sophia Arcanus was a golden child seen once in a millennium.

She is absolutely talented in her art. With a powerful aptitude for the occult.

It was why she held so many summons to her name. Though, that was news for her and her people.

So, as she was tied down by her decision, she simply continued to watch. Until asked or forced otherwise.

"Alright, Alright. I won't move." Thalia's voice boomed a spark into the air.

Igniting life within it despite the hell that it had become. "I won't move, but….you should know. This wasn't part of the plan."

Mila's face flicked. "Not part of the plan? Well, yes. We can both agree on that." She took a small pause, basking in the power that surged through her for a split second.

A newfound pleasure took a breath down her throat. "But, losing wasn't part of it either."

She turned her gaze towards Thalia. "You forced me to do this, Jun."

Thalia bit her lower lip. Brows sliding down in a furrow. "No one forced you to sign yourself up for gifts." Her voice grew stern. "You did."

Then without a moment of thought, she took another step forward.

A dare to Mila's authority.

"Does this seem fair to you, Mila? Unable to defeat us so you break down your humanity to fare for a bit more time."

Her chest rose with the rising tide of mana that surged within.

"What a show. The Red Peacemakers, is this how you all are? Humans who sought power through the crafty hands of the Devils who would rather enslave our kinds than dwell with it?"

Silence.

It trailed after the end of her speech.

Words that flew with the wind passed the figure who was meant to hear it. Listen to it and perhaps grow uncertain about it.

Of which, Mila thought was impossibly ridiculous.

Everything she said, to the last bit. It all felt too common to land.

Who didn't wish for power? Who didn't want to stump their enemies to pop while bearing the weight of what it meant to be truly strong?

The gift of the Powerful. The free will that was easily grasped in their hands was taken away from the Pitiful, weak ones of the land.

It didn't matter how cruel it was. Life itself was never fair game.

It simply came to the powerful, and Mila just happened to be one of those who would go over the heavens and swim through blood-stricken seas to get that power.

It was amusing because Thalia, of all people, should know this.

She was of the Jun. A mage perhaps, but generally, a Jun.

They were power-hungry people in the past. Still are, just a bit more humane.

Not the social or political one which can be easily ripped from them under another powerhouse, but the one which commands.

It commands respect. It consumes any flicker of weakness within them and naturally gains respect.

It doesn't demand it nor force it. Just attracts it. The reverence of the common folk who witness their splendour simply awe at the sight of it.

And they respect it.

The Red Peacemakers were a symbol of something much darker compared to them. But for Mila, it was her rising tomb to greatness.

Her only way is to rid herself of the weakness imbued by the System that pushes them to be strong.

Breaking through the barrier of the Level Cap.

How else could she face a top-tier Jun in their peak form? If not for her own peak form.

The thought alone sent a spiral of electrifying sensations down her bones.

It shook with a fervent rasp, causing a hitch in her voice before it broke away into a fit of laughter.

Loud. Vibrant. Mad.

It made the lava quake and erupt with her outburst. A small effect of her power. The power she sought so much in the past. Bearing fruitless training and weak sleep.

She had given up once – but never again.

Not with this newfound power. No matter the origin.

Thalia flinched from her sudden outburst. Her expression twitched slightly.

It had been more or less a stone thrown through the hole of a needle, but she had somehow made it count.

Her body hummed with a silent decree. The flow of mana surged like a slow storm. Ready to transcend its limits at any time.

'...still, I didn't expect her to laugh right at it.'

She thought with a sigh.

Thalia was well aware of the necessity of strength in a world like there's.

After all, she had once thrown the idea away, only to be brought into it by her younger brother.

The necessity of power couldn't be stretched enough. Though….

'The ends don't justify the means.'

Devils are despicable beings who want to rule the Mortal Realm. They were greedy, and selfish things. Bearing far too much sin to lead anyone to righteousness.

'They are honest to their sins, and I will give them props for that. Unlike Humans who deceive themselves first, before others.' Thalia thought. 'But nothing changes how despicable it was to work with Devils and Demons.'

"Funny or not, Mila. Defeating us through the powers of a Devil doesn't make you victorious."

Her voice cut through the air and her laughter. Stopping Mila right in her tracks as her crimson pools flared.

"It makes you weak. Far weaker than anyone else on earth. Because you're not the one defeating us."

She chuckled. A low and raspy tune that shook the air. "Not really. It's the Devil who is."

Her gaze grew stern.

"And soon, you will realize that you were nothing more than a cum bucket for the Devil to use and reuse."

Sophie's eyes flared open in slow motion. The subtle expression of shock took root on her face while she watched.

"Though, by the time you realize it. You would have dipped too far in to swim out and simply be another old toy the devil throws away." licking her lips clean, expectant of the end result. She let mana pool out of her system.

"Weak again, as you always have been."

The world cracked.

A bright crimson hue took root in the clouds as a predatory screech cried out in the air. Lightning ravaged the clouds as thunder quaked soon after.

The wind picked up. Hot. Warm. Scarlet. A modification of the world wrapped in flames and lava.

It surged upwards, reaching the top of Mila's head and forming a solid mass of warping material.

It shuddered under its own weight. A cry of damnation singing jolly bells as crimson lightning fell from the skies.

Right into the mass of growing material.

It shook. It trembled. It warped into various shapes. Taking the form of an orb while its surface stretched out for something more. Far wilder than the shape that tried to tame it.

The air turned hot under the effect of the mass as Mila's expression flared with a glare that burned the molecules in the air.

A trembling wrath that quaked the back of her throat till it was crispy dry. Hammered her muscles and organs until they were onyx coal and baked her skin, hard.

It was a form oblivious to mercy.

A Demonic Reckoning for her enemies.

She raised her sword to the air. A brisk of electrifying energy took root in the blade as it basked in the vibrant crimson and black that mixed in the mass.

Her gaze was eerie.

"You wanted to enrage me, right?" She said, a hushed whisper in the air that caught into their ears.

Thalia and Sophie could hardly respond.

The air was thick. Too dry for words to ensue out of their lips.

Their expressions simply contorted in the agony of the pain of breathing the dry air. Intoxicated with the miasma that pooled out of Mila like a hurricane.

This was judgment now. A simple, unbiased judgement and Thalia couldn't have been any happier.

"You have my full rage, Thalia Jun," Mila said as she slowly hovered her arm through the air. Whipping the air with a brief shudder before she collapsed it.

"Transcendent Skill; Demonic Hell Flames."